Two groups of separating materials are customary for liquid chromatography which is based on hydrophobic interactions:
a) Separating materials for reversed phase chromatography (RP-chromatography), which have a high ligand density, are mainly used for separating low molecular weight substances in non-aqueous eluents. PA0 b) Separating materials for hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC), which have lower ligand densities, and which in general have ligands of lower hydrophobicity (e.g. C.sub.4 -alkyl or C.sub.7 -aryl, instead of c.sub.8 -alkyl or C.sub.18 -alkyl as in RP chromatography), are mainly employed for separating proteins using aqueous eluents. A chaotropic salt, for example 2M ammonium sulfate, is added to the starting eluent; the salt concentration is decreased during the course of the gradient. PA0 a) the basal support contains aliphatic hydroxyl groups, PA0 b) the covalently bonded polymers are bonded to the basal support by way of a terminal monomer unit, PA0 c) the polymers contain monomer units of the formula II, PA0 d) the monomer units are linked linearly, ##STR3## in which R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are, independently of each other, H or CH.sub.3, PA0 and
Separating materials for hydrophobic interaction chromatography are known in the state of the art. Polysaccharides, which can also be cross-linked, and also cross-linked poly(methyl)acrylates, are customarily used as basal supports. In each case, the basal supports are substituted by lower alkyl or aryl radicals, for example by butyl, phenyl or benzyl. A known process for preparing these materials is based on reacting a basal support which contains oxirane groups with an alcohol in the presence of boron trifluoride etherate.
An inadequate separating effect is frequently observed when using separating materials which are known from the state of the art. Additional, frequently observed, disadvantages of these materials are diminution in the biological activity and/or losses due to non-specific irreversible binding of the analyte.